Quality of life assessment in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus

Introduction. One of the main goals of medical and nursing care of patients with viral hepatitis type C is to improve quality of their lives by
helping them to cope with physical, psychological, social and emotional difficulties.

Aim of the study. The aim of this study was to analyze the quality of life in people suffering from chronic diseases within four main domains:
physical, psychological, social and environmental.

Material and methods. The study involved 77 patients either hospitalized at the hepatology ward or treated in the Hepatology Outpatient
Clinic in Szczecin. Data were collected using the shortened version of the standardized instrument The World Health Organization Quality of
Life Assessment (WHOQOL), the WHOQOL-Bref. The statistical analysis of was performed using mean values and standard deviation.

Results and conclusions. The analysis of the quality of life in patients with chronic viral hepatitis type C demonstrated that the domain
which was assessed as the worst was the environmental aspect (13.34), while the best one was the domain of social relationships (15.54).
Women evaluated the quality of life dependent on physical ability worse than men (14.1 to 15.12), but they were more satisfied with social
relationships (15.72 to 15.26). Respondents’ education had the influence on their perception of the health–dependent quality of life — those
with higher education assessed the quality of life higher than others.
Chronic viral hepatitis type C has a significant negative effect on patients’ perception of their health, and so their quality of life dependent on
social relationships.

Nursing Topics 2011; 19 (2): 171–176